Mrs. Field`s Plans In-store Bakeries

Under an expansion program, this Park City, Utah-based firm expects to open as many as 20 to 25 full-line in-store bakeries in food chains in selected markets nationally by the end of 1990.

Chicago is one of the target markets for this new venture, Mrs. Field`s Chairman Randy Fields revealed to this column, saying that the firm hopes to have bakeries in three to five supermarkets in this market by year-end.

Sources at Jewel Food Stores and Dominick`s Finer Foods, the two dominent chains here, as well as Eagle Foods, indicated they had been approached by Mrs. Fields, but said they had not committed to any tie-up at this time. Jewel now operates its own bakeries while Dominick`s operates bakeries in some stores and features the Heinemann`s bakery chain in other units.

Mrs. Field`s, which has rebounded from a previous cutback that involved closing nearly 20 percent of its cookie stores, has a 10-year plan to establish upwards of 700 in-store bakeries, with perhaps as many as 75 opening in 1991.

The firm presently operates 470 cookie stores, which reportedly average $300,000 in annual sales, and 130 combination bakery-cookie stores. Many of the latter were picked up in a 1987 acquisition of the La Petite Boulangerie bakery chain, primarily a West Coast operation. One of the latter`s stores operates a full-line bakery in a Phoenix supermarket, sparking the new expansion plan.

Mrs. Field`s operates 22 cookie stores and two bakeries in the Chicago area.

``From what we saw (in Phoenix), there seems to be an opportunity for us,`` said Randy Fields, whose wife Debbi is president of the firm. Depending on the market, Fields thinks that the in-store bakeries can produce volume in the $700,000 to $1 million annual range. And that`s a nice chunk of dough for what started out as a plain old cookie store.

Looking for general manager

A new general manager is in the wings at J. Walter Thompson USA Chicago, filling a post that has been vacant since late 1988. Stephen G. Bowen Jr., JWT`s Chicago-based president, has been interviewing candidates, reportedly outsiders, for the general manager job, but a decision is not imminent, sources say. An appointment is perhaps a few months away. Alan Webb had been JWT Chicago general manager until Bowen arrived here from New York in the fall of 1988, but Webb`s duties at the time apparently overlapped those of Bowen. Webb, an agency executive VP, now is one of three group creative directors. Bowen in recent months has been seeking to add to the management team at JWT Chicago. The new general manager will report to Bowen.

- Domino`s Pizza Inc. says it is holding preliminary talks with a possible buyer, which sources believe is a firm not in the fast-service business and might be an overseas conglomerate. Domino`s Chairman Tom Monaghan, who owns 97 percent of the pizza delivery firm he founded in 1960, also says that he is considering taking at least part (about 10 percent) of the company public. Only last December, Monaghan said he wanted to sell Domino`s to employees through an employee stock ownership plan. This also remains a possibility, he said. Domino`s has been seeking ways to recapitalize the company`s debt. Monaghan has said he wants to sell Domino`s to devote more time to philanthropic interests.

- Hearst Corp., through its National Magazine Co. British subsidiary, will publish Esquire in that market, beginning with a March issue in 1991. Esquire, founded 57 years ago in this country and acquired by Hearst in late 1986, will be published 10 times next year in the U.K. and as a monthly there beginning in 1992. Initial circulation will be at least 75,000. This won`t be the first time overseas for Esquire, which has been published in German, Italian and Japanese editions.

On the move: Norwin A. Merens appointed director of marketing and communications at Printing Industry of Illinois/Indiana Association.... Vivian A. Saville named director of sales for The Townhomes of Spring Lake near Aurora.... James L. Edlund appointed director of marketing for The Abbey Group, Lombard.

redeemable on ticket purchases. The carrier internally conceived the idea for the coupon; agency Leo Burnett Co. put the ad together. ``We wanted to stimulate the vacation traveler,`` says John Ruhaak, United vice president for advertising and promotion. What the redemption rate on this coupon will be is anybody`s guess. But, with the airfare wars heating up for summer travel, United`s coupon pitch at least represents a novel approach, which could be imitated by other carriers.